Photos from BITE ME, the premier zine of the late-70s UK Vampire Punk scene. The small but passionate scene was fueled by young vampires inspired by the rebellious anti-establishment themes of human punk music. Vampunks rejected old notions that their kind should not participate in human culture or make themselves known, or that their lives should be governed by ancient rules they felt had no place in the modern world. All of this irked the Vampiric Council, who saw “out-of-control” youth as a threat to the “traditional” vampire ways of life. Unlike their ethnocentric elders, vampunks practiced “radical tolerance” of other monsters, welcoming zombies, mummies, franks, golems, trolls, and other shunned creatures to their shows. But nothing infuriated vampire traditionalists more than the vampunks’ open embrace of lycans, rejecting the centuries-long war between the two species. Shows were often held on full moons so that werewolves could not only attend, but in some cases participate - seminal vampunk band Drac & The Bats famously had a lycan drummer. “WAR IS THE ONLY MONSTER” was a saying commonly scrawled on the clothes of young vampire and werewolf punks who saw their communal music as a political statement.
Ultimately, vampire punk ended as suddenly as it began, when the increasingly public nature of the shows lured long-dormant monster hunters out of retirement, prompting swift and aggressive joint action from the Vampiric and Lycan Councils that effectively banned unauthorized vampire gatherings. But the death of vampunk was not in vain: In coming together to address a common threat, a line of communication between lycans and vampires was opened that allowed for a new “cold war” era of relative peace. And vampunk’s musical influences lived on as well, with many of the same vampires reportedly moving on to secretly involve themselves very prominently in human music through the gothic and new wave scenes of the early 1980s. In this way, vampunk - much like its participants - will truly never die.
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NOTE: This alternate reality horror story is part of my NightmAIres narrative art series (visit that link for a lot more). NightmAIres are windows into other worlds and interconnected alternate histories, conceived/written by me and visualized with synthography and Photoshop.
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DEVIL MASTER are sad because everyone wants them to go home and change. Absolutely not. They're outside during daylight hours, isn't that enough?
It’s true that family get-togethers are becoming increasingly tense for everyone involved, but capes should absolutely be considered formal wear. If a velvet cape doesn’t count as making an effort when going out for a meal, then frankly the world doesn’t make sense anymore.
Dracula was royalty, for gracious’ sake. He wouldn’t be caught out at a dinner party without a cape, would he? So if everyone could just chillax and stop staring and/or snickering, we can go back inside the restaurant and all this unpleasantness can be forgotten.
And for the last time, no, it’s not a phase. It’s a lifestyle.
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"Panic" by Talagante, Chile-based deathpunk act The Daggers off of their 2021 album ...And the Vampires Come to Life
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drew a hot 90s punk rock tgirl vampire because nobody can stop me
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I was unstoppable when I saw him in the trailer for Fiona and Cake
also i had to punk him up a bit cause i know deep in my heart, he is a patch collecting freak.
Character: Marshal Lee (adventure time/Fiona and cake)
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